Can You Spare a Little Social Change?
"Can you spare a little social change?" So read the flyer for the Bob Hale Youth College for Social Justice, and in Ottawa the answer was a resounding YES. Twenty participants between the ages of 15 and 24 gave up their Wednesday evenings (and the occasional batch of homemade cookies) during the fall oi 1995 to attend the ten-week "college" organized by the Peace and Environment Resource Centre (PERC). Named in honor of the late Bob Hale, a local peace activist, the college used a popular education framework to examine fundamental social justice issues such as power, gender, racism and First Nations. Each issue was carefully paired with a skill or technique such as consensus building or nonviolent resistance to keep the program grounded into community activism and leadership development. The finale was "The Toolbox"--an inventory of the tools needed for social activism.
As a parallel project, a participant's handbook was assembled featuring material from each session along with extra ideas for action and tips on sorting out the good from the garbage on the Internet.
The Peace and Environment Resource Centre is located at 174 First Ave., Ottawa Ontario KIS 2G4 Canada.